Monday, June 1, 2015

Shifting Views

    When I came across this series of portraits by photographer Tim Walker I was struck instantly by one thing over every other consideration; the power of garments to shift us to another place, make us another person, or allow some hidden aspect of us to emerge for a time.  In each case here, the person has been morphed into another version of themselves, or perhaps someone, or something else, entirely.  And we, as observers, because we are humans, right off, begin writing a narrative to fit the new image of the person we are seeing.  Whether that story we are writing has any connection to the viewed other, or not, is immaterial.  What is substantive, is that we realize intuitively that we are being told a story, and being voraciously curious, and more than a bit impatient, we can't wait to hear more of the tale we are presented from the person presenting it, so, without that input, we make up our own.
    I am suggesting here, that you take a few minutes and peruse these images.  Each has a definite story to relate.  Those stories are deliberately extreme, nearly comedic, but all of them are compelling.
    Though its completely true that in each case, the position of the person, and their expression, adds greatly to the final statement, the same person in exactly the same pose, would be transmitting an utterly different message, if differently dressed.




Let me know what you think of these folks and what they have to say.

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